Controversial novel on France under Islamist rule released amid shock over Paris attack

A highly controversial novel, imagining France under Islamist leadership in the near future, has hit stores. The release shockingly coincided with a terror attack on a satirical newspaper that published cartoons of Muslim leaders and the Prophet Muhammad.

The author of the novel, star French writer Michel Houellebecq,
denies accusations of instigating Islamophobia with a book his
critics say was a gift to the French right-wing.

Houellebecq argues he is politically “neutral” and the
book titled 'Soumission' (Submission) is only an attempt at
lifting a taboo on discussing Islam.

"We’ve come to a point in France where you can be criticized
for merely pronouncing the word Islam,” Reuters cited the
writer’s interview to Le Figaro, which is set to be published on
Friday. “Islam is not among the subjects which we can really
discuss. It's a little frightening."

The book depicts French elections in 2022, in which a Muslim
Brotherhood-style party confronts Marine Le Pen’s right-wing
National Front and wins.

Europe has recently witnessed a surge in immigrants from the
Muslim world, with a large portion coming from countries like
Syria, where military conflicts are ongoing. The trend has
resulted in right-wing parties gaining prominence all over
Europe.

The year 2014 was the most successful ever for France’s
anti-immigration National Front, which topped a national election
in May and won seats in the French Senate for the first time in
September.

Houellebecq said his book is not a present to Marine Le Pen, who
does not need any gifts, as things are “going relatively well
for her at the moment.”

“I do not think that the book will change her destiny,”
he said, as cited by Euronews. “I do not see any examples
where novels (fiction) have changed history. Other things change
history like essays or the Manifesto of the Communist Party,
things like that, but not novels.”

As for Le Pen, she said the book was "a fiction that could
one day become reality,” according to AFP.

The book, which has been at the top of France’s political agenda
in recent days, is likely to stir more controversy, as its
release came on the day that Paris was rocked by a deadly assault
at the headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.